''Happy Nation'' is the debut studio album by Swedish pop group Ace of Base. It was initially released in Denmark on 2 November 1992 by

Mega Records Mega Records was a Nashville, Tennessee-based music label founded in 1970 by former RCA Records executive Brad McCuen along with Harry E. Pratt. Its most successful recording artist was Sammi Smith who also recorded the label's very first single. ...

. During development of the record, the group was heavily influenced by a Jamaican

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

band residing in a nearby studio. For a release in North America, Japan and some Latin American countries, the album was retitled '' The Sign'' with a heavily revised track listing and three new tracks. To coincide with this, ''Happy Nation'' was reissued with the new tracks in other territories as ''Happy Nation (U.S. Version)''. In 1995, Guinness Book of World Records named the LP the best-selling debut studio effort in music history, at more than 19 million copies sold worldwide. By 1998, ''Happy Nation''/''The Sign'' had sold approximately 21 million units including 9 million in the US alone. ''Happy Nation''/''The Sign'' is one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Background and release

Speaking with '' Music & Media'' magazine about the album, Metronome Records managing director Albert Slendebroek said of the album: Following its initial release in Denmark in November 1992, ''Happy Nation'' was gradually released across Europe throughout 1993; first in Norway in January, then in Sweden and Germany in February, and in the UK in June. It would also be released in Africa, and Latin America, and reached the number one position in at least 10 countries. ''Happy Nation (U.S. Version)'' came on 22 November 1993 to coincide with the album's release in North America under the title '' The Sign''. This edition included the new tracks "The Sign", "Living in Danger", and the

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before ...

cover "Don't Turn Around", along with a remix of "Waiting for Magic" and a version of "Voulez-Vous Danser" with revised vocals. It also included the new track "Hear Me Calling", which did not appear on ''The Sign''. The songs "Münchhausen (Just Chaos)" and "Dimension of Depth" from the original album were removed altogether. The new version of the album was released in the UK on 14 March 1994, and climbed to number 1 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

on 26 June, beating the number 21 peak of the original release. In 2016, Russian label Mirumir released an "Ultimate Edition" on vinyl containing the original track list from the 1992 release, the additional tracks from ''The Sign''/''Happy Nation (U.S. Version)'' releases and the iTunes bonuses from the three releases.

Track listing

Notes * signifies a co-producer * signifies re-editing * signifies rap lyrics * signifies pre-production * signifies a remixer

Release history

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{Authority control Ace of Base albums 1993 debut albums Edel-Mega Records albums